Summary
Cheryl, where are you? Cheryl?... Oops, sorry, don't take it personally... aaahhhhh!
The Good
"Silent Hill", "Silent Hill"... Definitely an excellent game, for the following reasons:
1) Fantastic atmosphere. The snow is falling, the town looks creepy, the monsters look scary, the locations are spooky, you are running around and don't know what awaits you at the next corner...
2) The soundtrack is great, and why do so many people complain about the radio? I don't know what I would do without it. It sounds cool, too.
3) The graphics are amazing. Everything is 3D, and looks better than in any 3D Playstation game I know.
4) You can rotate the camera!
5) The story is definitely very good. A little bit too much demonic mumbo-jumbo for my taste, and some parts are slightly underdeveloped, but a great story nevertheless.
6) The FMV sequences are great.
7) The characters actually have personality.
8) Good puzzles! Some are pretty hard, though.
The Bad
Some things really disturbed me. One of them was the control of the main character. I can't stand this character-based control, it is unnatural (it would be natural only if the game were played from 1st person perspective, but then again, then there would be only one possible control, both character and camera-based). Harry's movements are clumsy and slow. But the worst part of the game is its combat. Unfortunately, it takes away a whole lot of pleasure. The combat (and the monster encounters in general)in the sequel is so much better, that I can't help comparing and criticizing this game for its extremely unspectacular, clumsy, and annoying combat. First of all, there are way too many monsters. It kills the suspense. There are much less of them in
Silent Hill 2, or was it because I played it on the easiest level? But I did the same with this game, and still there were way too many monsters, and the battles are... well, not too hard, because they are not, but the aiming is disastrous, and especially those winged creatures are extremely annoying. Harry is so slow in everything he does, including turning around, aiming, shooting, running, and what not. I died a lot, and I guess I will be doing so until I finally finish the game.
The Bottom Line
A definite classic. A horror game with REAL horror, suspense, and an interesting story. The combat system is not very good, though, but if you don't care much for such things and if you like a high quality horror entertainment, go ahead, what are you waiting for?
